Estee Bradley
Estee Marie is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and creative wellness consultant who helps schools, organizations, and communities cultivate resilience, emotional well-being, and growth through creative expression, storytelling, and self-discovery. As the founder of Arts Reach Consulting and a creative wellness business rooted in faith-based principles, she partners with forward-thinking groups to integrate arts-based practices that support emotional regulation, psychological safety, and personal development. Her work sits at the intersection of education, healing, and the arts, with a focus on using creativity as a practical tool for transformation.
She has also carved out a unique niche supporting women of faith in de-stressing and healing through art within a biblical lens. Recognizing that many women feel disconnected from traditional wellness spaces that may not align with their spiritual beliefs, she bridges that gap by creating inclusive, faith-affirming creative experiences. A licensed chaplain and grief counselor, she emphasizes that while her work is therapeutic in nature, it is not therapy. Instead, she offers creative modalities that help individuals process stress, trauma, and emotional overwhelm when words are not readily available. Her approach is informed by her own lived experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse and her personal healing journey through both poetry and abstract painting.
Her artistic practice began with poetry in middle school, where creative writing and metaphor became her first language for expressing difficult experiences. Later, after the loss of her mother during the COVID-19 pandemic, she turned to abstract painting and intuitive “dirty pour” techniques, inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s belief in non-verbal emotional expression through art. Today, she helps others access that same form of release and clarity through color, symbolism, and storytelling. She is the creator of The Color of Us, an art and poetry experience funded in part by the Houston Arts Alliance’s Let Creativity Happen grant, which explored colorism in Harris County through visual art, spoken word, and community dialogue inspired by Nina Simone’s Four Women. Her work continues to use art as a bridge for difficult conversations, helping individuals and communities name, process, and move through complex emotional and social experiences.
• Licensed Grief Counselor
• Multiple Subject Teaching Credential
• Certified Chaplain
• Arts Integration Specialists
• UCLA - B.A, African American Studies with Specializations in Film and Television
• Let Creativity Happen Grant from Houston Arts Alliance (2025)
• America for the Arts
• Houston Arts Alliance (grant recipient/creative partner)
• Temple Build Initiative (Founder)
• Faith-based women's healing communities
• Local nonprofit and wellness advocacy partnerships
• RAW Artists
• Laguna Art Group
• Temple Build Initiative (Founder) - workforce development and holistic wellness nonprofit serving individuals through mental health support
• Nutrition education
• And construction industry job training
• Speaker, Role Model
NewSong Church
What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to God and His hand being on me, allowing me to explore all these different avenues. I feel like I've lived a lot of different lives, but they've all been different pieces of this puzzle that have gotten me where I am today and are shaping the things that I'm doing today. Even the hard things that I would have preferred not to have to live through - they're pieces of the puzzle. Because what I have survived, there's someone who's currently going through that doesn't know that there's joy on the other side of that. I've been in that suicidal place where I'm just like, you know what, I'm over this, I don't want to exist anymore. But to be able to tell that person, like, hey, if you hold on, it gets better - that's why I'm still here.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice she carries is to never minimize the value of her gift. She believes creativity is not “extra”—it is necessary for healing, growth, and restoration, and she has learned to confidently stand in that purpose.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say it's important for them to be confident in their ideas, no matter how different they are. Be confident in their ideas, no matter how different they are.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges I see are budget cuts - everyone's slashing budgets right now - and helping people to see the value in art and creative expression. Getting people to understand that it's not simply some extracurricular luxury that they should engage in every now and then, but it's actually essential for helping people deal with their mental health. It's not a luxury, it's an essential part of life. We need these things in our lives, along with everything else. Having people understand that art is necessary, I think that is a struggle, because everyone doesn't view it the same way. On the opportunity side, the fact that it's creative is a strength at the same time, because it's something that's different and people are always looking for new, innovative ways to engage. It's not your typical professional development session for corporate settings. It actually allows people to have insight and be in tune with themselves. People are so busy, they're always so on the go, but this gives you a moment to actually pause so that you can do effective work. We cannot be productive when we're overstimulated, overstressed, and all the things. It's important to have those reflective moments so we can actually be productive like we want to be. Rest is productive - people don't understand that.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are definitely creativity, respect, and communication. I think those are very important communication, respect, and creativity. Things gotta be fun. Like, it has to be enjoyable. People need freedom to create.